                                ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, October 25, 1996               TAG: 9610300078
SECTION: NATL/INTL                PAGE: A6   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

STUDY: 13% OF PUPILS HELD BACK

Pupils are more likely to be held back in elementary school than in the upper grades, and a 1994 survey of students 15 to 17 years old found that 13 percent had repeated at least one grade, the Census Bureau says.

Educators have been debating the worth of grade retention in recent months as states, trying to raise academic standards, began requiring students to pass tests before being promoted. But some studies have found dropout rates much higher for pupils held behind their classmates, even among those receiving special tutoring.

President Clinton entered the fray at an education summit in New York this year. He denounced social promotions and said, ``The worst thing you can do is send people all the way through school with a diploma they can't read.''

Quoting the 1994 survey, a just-released Census Bureau study said 31 percent of 15-to 17-year-olds were enrolled at lower than the normal grades for their ages, but that 18 percent started school at an older age than their peers.

That means the remaining 13 percent were retained at least once between the first and 12th grades.

Ten percent had been retained by the time they were in sixth grade, the report said. Two percent more were held back by ninth grade, and an additional 1 percent by the senior year.

In 1980, 11 percent of 15-to 17-year-olds had been retained at least once. The portion climbed to 15 percent in 1985 and 1986, then wavered between 12 percent and 16 percent until 1994.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the dropout rate in 1992 for 16- to 24-year-olds who had repeated at least one grade was more than double that of those never held back.

LENGTH: Short :   42 lines
KEYWORDS: 5DA

by CNB